Donald Trump’s Happy New Year, except for Pakistan: Daily Bullshit, January 1, 2018

The new year is already looking decidedly dangerous.


Afghanistan

Consider this juxtaposition:

In his first tweet of the new year President Donald Trump slammed Pakistan, saying the country has given the US nothing but “lies and deceit.”

“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” Trump tweeted Monday morning. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” . . .

After American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, were freed as Taliban prisoners, the President praised Pakistan’s cooperation with the US.

“This is a very positive moment for our country’s relationship with Pakistan,” Trump said, adding that the Pakistani government’s cooperation “is a sign that is honoring America wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region.”

Trump said Pakistan is “starting to respect the United States again.”[1]

Now imagine you are a neoconservative, committed to the idea of the United States as the “world’s policeman” (since we’re talking colonial attitudes anyway, I’m leaving the sexist language intact) and fully on board with the so-called “War on Terror,” especially including the war in Afghanistan. You know that the alliance with Pakistan, shaky as it might be, is indispensable in this fight because the alternative logistical paths all involve air cargo through “rival” or rival-aligned and often former Soviet states. And you know, because unlike most, you actually pay attention to this shit, that Pakistan is already annoyed with the U.S. and with being made a scapegoat for what it perceives as a failed and highly costly policy that neglects its own security concerns.[2]

And you see, from the CNN report,[3] that Trump’s tweeting not only threatens an indispensable alliance but indicates an erratic attitude toward that indispensable ally. And, for you, because you refuse to acknowledge that many of the problems the U.S. faces around the world are products of its own policies, you see any threat to U.S. counter-terrorism as an invitation to another 9/11.

But then, if you are a neoconservative, you’re probably not much of a Trump fan anyway. So this is one more reason to act. Especially if you’re where it matters most, in the so-called “Dark State,” in the so-called “national security” agencies.

Daniella Diaz, “Trump’s first 2018 tweet: Pakistan has ‘given us nothing but lies & deceit,'” CNN, January 1, 2018, http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/01/politics/donald-trump-2018-pakistan/index.html


North Korea

Reuters, “South Korea seizes second ship suspected of smuggling oil to North,” Guardian, December 31, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/31/south-korea-seizes-second-ship-suspected-of-smuggling-oil-toth


  1. [1]Daniella Diaz, “Trump’s first 2018 tweet: Pakistan has ‘given us nothing but lies & deceit,'” CNN, January 1, 2018, http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/01/politics/donald-trump-2018-pakistan/index.html
  2. [2]Dawn, “‘We must reject being made scapegoats for US policy failures,'” August 22, 2017, https://www.dawn.com/news/1353189/we-must-reject-being-made-scapegoats-for-us-policy-failures
  3. [3]Daniella Diaz, “Trump’s first 2018 tweet: Pakistan has ‘given us nothing but lies & deceit,'” CNN, January 1, 2018, http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/01/politics/donald-trump-2018-pakistan/index.html

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